Joseph
Smith: Innocent of Polygamy

By Richard Price

History affirms that the Prophet Joseph Smith was innocent of
the teaching and practice of polygamy. This false doctrine was
introduced into the Church in the early days of the Restoration
Movement by men who conspired to use his name to create a theology
that would cover their own sins.

It is a very simple matter to determine that Joseph was not
a polygamist: He fathered no children by plural wives, even though
his wife, Emma, bore him nine. It would have been impossible for
Joseph to have had at least twenty-seven wives, as the Mormon
Church in Utah claims, without having fathered at least one child
by a polygamous wife—especially when the only purpose of
polygamy (according to its advocates) was to have children born
of polygamous parents. And yet Joseph fathered not one such child!
This fact alone proves that he did not practice that doctrine.

The truth is that Joseph Smith was “framed”—
that is, the doctrine of polygamy which found its way into the
Church came in through the Cochranites. It also came through three
different groups of men who falsely claimed that Joseph was its
author in order to justify their own evil activities.

The Prophet Israel A. Smith understood this “framing”
of his grandfather and wrote, “Joseph Smith was the greatest
victim of fraud and conspiracy of the last 500 years. Nothing
like it in recorded history. He was simply lied about when something
had to be done to justify the filth and rottenness of Utah Mormon
Polygamy” (letter to Mrs. Richard Price, September 17, 1956).

Polygamy Began With the Cochranites

A study into the origins of polygamy among the Latter Day Saints
reveals that this accursed doctrine actually had its beginning
with members who were converted from the Cochranite denomination
as early as 1832.

About 1816 a man named Jacob Cochran started a small denomination
which later centered at Saco, Maine. This denomination became
known as the Cochranites and is best known for its practice of
polygamy. By the early 1830’s this group had developed a
theology and some ritualism to enhance its practice, calling it
“spiritual wifery” (Cochranism
Delineated, by A. Watchman).

In 1832, the Church’s missionaries, including Orson Hyde
and Brigham Young, began converting these people. A number of
them moved to Kirtland, bringing their polygamous theology with
them.

This is why Joseph Smith and the committee which published the
Doctrine and Covenants at Kirtland in 1835 included the “Article
on Marriage,” which said, “Inasmuch as this Church
of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication, and
polygamy: we declare that we believe that one man should have
one wife ...“ (Doctrine and Covenants 111: 4).

Two years later the Quorums of Seventy at Kirtland also published
a statement against polygamy, in an effort to put down the Cochranite
influence within the Church. The Seventies adopted a resolution
which stated, “That we have no fellowship whatever with
any elder belonging to the quorums of the Seventies who is guilty
of polygamy ...“ (Messenger and Advocate
3: 511, May, 1837).

The First Polygamy Conspiracy—Bennett
and His Followers

The first organized effort of a group of men which tried to implicate
Joseph in polygamy to cover their own evil deeds was headed by
Dr. John C. Bennett who came to Nauvoo in 1841. Dr. Bennett, who
was mayor of Nauvoo and an assistant to the First Presidency,
seduced several women by teaching them the Cochranite plural wife
doctrines. He did so by convincing them “that Joseph had
such revelations and commandments, and that they were of God”
(The Wasp, July 27, 1842).

Dr. Bennett taught several men to practice polygamy also, including
Chauncey and Francis M. Higbee, sons of the Church’s historian.
When their seductions came to light, Joseph labored with the men
and expelled Dr. Bennett.

Joseph also sued Lawyer Chauncey Higbee for teaching that Joseph
was the author of polygamy. On May 24, 1842, he signed an affidavit
to take Chauncey into court in Carthage (the county seat). Joseph’s
affidavit declared, “...That at sundry times, in the City
of Nauvoo, county aforesaid, one Chancy (sic) L. Higbee has slandered
and defamed the character of the said Joseph Smith, and also the
character of Emma Smith, his wife, in using their names, the more
readily to accomplish his purpose in seducing certain females
..." (The People Versus C. L. Higbee, Hancock County Courthouse
Archives). If Joseph had been the author of polygamy, he certainly
would not have sued a lawyer in a nonmember court, for fear that
he would be exposed, rather than Chauncey!

The Second Conspiracy—Dr. Law’s
Group

When Dr. Bennett was expelled from the Church in 1842 he left
Nauvoo, but the youthful Higbee brothers remained. Soon others
joined them—men who were angry with Joseph for various economic
and political reasons—and because Joseph had disciplined
some of them in Church courts for adultery, thievery, and other
crimes. Dr. William Law, a member of the First Presidency, joined
this group and became the head of it.

Animosity developed between this group and Joseph. A conspiracy
was formed and they tried to kill him. In a court case in which
one of the conspirators sued Joseph Smith, A. B. Williams gave
affidavit saying, “Joseph H. Jackson said that Doctor (Robert)
Foster, Chauncy Higbee and the Laws were red-hot for a conspiracy,
and he should not be surprised if in two weeks there should be
not one of the Smith family left in Nauvoo” (Times
and Seasons 5:541, May 15, 1844).

Dr. Law tried to depose Joseph and replace him as the head of
the Church. He declared himself the head of the “Reformed
Mormon Church,” called Francis Higbee and others to be apostles,
and called for the elders to come and have their licenses renewed
under him. This group published the Nauvoo
Expositor, which claimed that Joseph was a polygamist.
After their paper was destroyed, they went to Carthage and raised
the mob that killed Joseph and Hyrum.

This group constituted the second conspiracy which accused Joseph
of polygamy in order to further their own selfish aims. Their
aims were different than Dr. Bennett’s, however, in that
they wanted to remove Joseph—not to institute polygamy.

The Third Conspiracy—The Apostles

A third group which tried to link Joseph’s name with polygamy
was headed by several apostles, who had spent considerable time
between 1837 and 1844 ministering in England without their wives.
During this time, polygamy was a common topic of discussion, both
in England and America.

Under these circumstances some of the apostles had “manifestations”
about polygamy being of divine origin. As an example, Brigham
Young said, “While we were in England (in 1839 and 1840,
I think) the Lord manifested to me by vision and His Spirit, things
[about polygamy] that I did not then understand. I never opened
my mouth to anyone concerning them, until I returned to Nauvoo;
Joseph had never mentioned this; there had never been a thought
of it in the church that I ever knew, anything about at that time;—but
I had this for myself and kept it for myself ..." (Deseret
News, July 1, 1874).

Another who had polygamy “revealed” to him in England
was Lorenzo Snow (Deseret Semi-Weekly News,
June 6, 1899). In addition to having these adulterous conceptions,
some of these men including Orson Hyde and Brigham Young had preached
among the Cochranites.

Brigham returned from England and sat as a judge on Dr. Bennett’s
case when he was tried and expelled in 1842. There Brigham learned
more about the workings of polygamy and took his first plural
wife one month later.

In 1843 he preached in the Boston area among the Cochranites
and returned to Nauvoo that fall. He brought with him Augusta
Adams Cobb, a married woman, who had been baptized amid the Cochranites
(Journal of Orson Hyde, pp. 16–17;
American Heritage, Feb. 1965, pp.
50–55). Before Joseph’s death Brigham had secretly
married four polygamous wives, including Augusta. Several other
prominent men, including apostles, also had taken plural wives
by this time.

As these men began practicing polygamy, it became necessary
to find some theological cover for their sins—and of course
it was easy to take the same route that Dr. Bennett had done—to
use the Cochranite, and perhaps other polygamous theologies, under
Joseph’s name. Of course, they had to denounce Bennettism
and had to make it appear that Joseph was the author of the system.
This was a big undertaking, but they had some advantages—Brigham
Young was president of the Quorum of Twelve, Apostle Willard Richards
was one of the secretaries for the Church, the Church historian,
and a clerk of the Nauvoo Municipal Court. John Taylor was editor
of the Church paper Times and Seasons
and also the city’s newspaper, the Nauvoo
Neighbor.

Joseph’s brother, Apostle William Smith, who saw through
the conspiracy of this group of apostles, was in Nauvoo in April
to June 1844. He later wrote to Joseph Smith III explaining, “The
Church was robbed of her prophet and patriarch, by a most hellish
plot that had been in vogue for not only months, but years previous
to the time of their deaths.” He further explained that
“... I wish to here name the fact that the principal instigators
in getting up that ordinance [to have the Nauvoo
Expositor destroyed] were men who feared the revelations
that this organ (the Expositor) was
about to make of their secret and ungodly doings to the world.
The persons who were most conspicuous in this work ... were no
other than John Taylor and Willard Richards, who by constant importunities
prevailed upon your father to sign his own death warrant ....
Thus these men ... ensnared the prophet from off his watch tower,
and led him like a lamb to the slaughter...“ (Saints
Herald, April 15, 1879, p. 117).

In the same letter, Apostle William stated that the apostles
were secretly teaching polygamy among the Saints at that time.
He explained that he “took breakfast” with Joseph
and Emma, at which time Emma said that “some complaint had
been made to her by females whom she had visited, that John Taylor,
Willard Richards, and Brigham Young, had been teaching some doctrines
among the Saints privately that was going to ruin the Church ....“

Joseph’s answer was that “he would attend to the
matter as soon as he got through with his trouble with the Laws
and Fosters.” It must be remembered that this happened immediately
following the publication of the Expositor’s
first and only issue. But Joseph did not wait until he settled
the Law conspiracy to start on the apostles’ conspiracy.
Joseph went to William Marks and asked him to start prosecuting
those who were practicing polygamy—the apostles and their
friends.

Summary

The true origin of polygamy becomes clear as the picture emerges
of the influence of the Cochranites and other polygamous cults,
and the betrayal of the Prophet by the groups of conspirators
under Dr. Bennett, Dr. Law, and Brigham Young. With this background,
it becomes evident that Joseph and Hyrum (neither of whom had
polygamous children) were innocent, while the real culprits were
Brigham Young and others.

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